FNIA: The Missing Pieces

16: 2 Sides of the same Coin

EVAN POV:

"So. where do you want me to start?"

I let out a sigh as I stirred the coffee in front of me, Michelle sitting across from me with her own coffee as I pondered how to answer her question

My shift had ended not long ago. And aside from Mangle not being able to give me that tour she had agreed to due to her battery being low. Nothing much had happened for the rest of my shift. And Mangle had agreed that we could do it tonight after my next shift's tasks were done. So I had that to look forward to.

That pretty much led to now. I was down in the employee lounge with Michelle, who had arrived at the pizzaplex early so she could explain what she had mentioned during our brief meeting yesterday.

"I guess first would be how you knew I was Animatronic?" I asked as I took a sip of my drink.

"Fair enough." She replied with a shrug. "To be honest it was more of a hunch all things considered."

"Me being a robot was a hunch?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Must have been quite the hunch."

"Yeah, well. I never actually saw proof. None of us who worked there did." She admitted pursed lips. "But we knew you were in the building when it collapsed. And while no body identified as yours was recovered from the wreckage, a humanoid endoskeleton that most of us knew didn't belong to any form of Anime-tronic model was. That plus a few other things led to speculation from those of us who used to work there."

"That leads to my next question actually." I spoke once she finished explaining. While mentally filling away what she mentioned to ask Henry about later. "You had mentioned to me an old job yesterday, specifically at a convention. Am I correct to assume it's that one across town that burnt down 5 years ago?"

"The one and only." She confirmed with a nod. Just having that confirmed made me groan at the incoming headache at the implications. "You weren't there long though. You had only started a week before everything went to shit that night."

"Great... Just great." I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I'll be honest I'm having a hard time believing this, I feel like I would already know all this if it was the case. But at the same time it matches up with what Henry has told me."

"Mr Emily is in on this?" Michelle asked with a tone of both surprise and curiosity. Before I saw her face gain a thoughtful expression. "Actually that does explain a couple things."

"Which are?" I asked with my own curiosity now piqued.

"Apparently he did try to have your old body recovered from the wreckage of the building. But scrap guys snatched it before he could have it transported." She explained as she took another sip of her coffee. "It's clear you've been rebuilt since then, maybe he wanted to try salvage parts from your old body?"

"The Blackbox." I added as the realisation kicked in. "He would have wanted that."

"Black box?" Michelle asked with a confused look clear on her face. "Aren't those the things in planes?"

"Same premise." I explained as I readjusted myself in my seat. "The Anime-tronics each have one located within their head. It's essentially a backup hard drive contained in a reinforced casing. It records the last 24 hours of activation as well as contains a backup of the ai."

"And if your old body had one." She added as her eyes shone with realisation. "It would have basically had a backup of your old self in it."

"But because it was taken before Henry could salvage it, he basically had to start from the ground up when rebuilding me." I finished as I slumped back in my chair. There was plenty more to it than just that. Like how Henry had gotten the eye and tried to use the traces of remnant in it to jumpstart me. But Michelle didn't need to know about that. The existence of remnant alone is a need to know basis.